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Mobilizing Against Black Masses (9622)

COMMENTARY

As Catholics in Oklahoma valiantly rally to stop a Sept. 21 Satanic “black Mass” at the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall, there’s much that those outside of the Sooner State can do to augment their efforts.

In May, I was part of a large group that assisted Catholic students successfully to shut down the May 12 re-enactment of a Satanic mass on the Harvard campus. A few things worked for us that may help in rebuffing present and future efforts of Satanist provocateurs.

The first thing we did was to frame what was happening in terms by which Catholics and non-Catholics alike would be motivated to support us.

The public sacrilege of the Eucharist is enough to nauseate and motivate any Catholic who has ever devoutly received first Communion.

The Dakhma of Angra Mainyu, the group sponsoring the event in OKC, doesn’t mask on its website what they intend to do. “The modern form of the black mass” celebrates, they state, the “perversion of the Catholic Mass.” A consecrated Host is “corrupted by sexual fluids” to “mock the Catholic Mass” and “deprogram people from their Christian background.” They say they’ve “toned down” what they will do on Sept. 21 so that they won’t break state laws on “nudity, public urination and other sex acts,” but emphasize that they will still commit the Eucharistic sacrilege designed to “receive a ‘blessing’ from the devil.” Catholics hearing this respond like combat veterans would if they knew vandals were intending to deface the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

For non-Catholics, we tried to convey that the Eucharist is the most sacred reality of Catholic life and worship. To desecrate the Eucharist is at least for Catholics equally revolting to our sensibilities as would be the burning of the Qu’ran for Muslims or the defacing of the Torah for Jews — outrageous actions, we stressed, for which a venue at Harvard would never be given.

For those without religious convictions of any sort, we mentioned that the college would never provide a setting either for those who wanted to re-enact in a tone of celebration the lynching of slaves or brutal attacks against homosexuals.

These self-evident assertions about Harvard’s intolerance for the intolerable made clear that if Harvard wouldn’t allow anti-Muslim, -Semitic, -black or –homosexual bigots to use campus property, then it shouldn’t allow blatantly anti-Catholic practices either.

In Oklahoma City, a spokesperson for the Civic Center Music Hall stated that because it’s a city-owned facility, it cannot turn away productions “based on their content,” provided that they “comply with our policies and ordinances and have paid the established rental fees.”

On a legal level, it’s hard to grasp why the Civic Center would be claiming impotence. Oklahoma state law bans blasphemy, defined as “wantonly uttering or publishing words, casting contumelious reproach or profane ridicule upon God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, the holy Scriptures or the Christian or any other religion,” and the OKC municipal code protects against degrading any individual’s religion or vandalizing any religious property. Those are certainly legally defensible reasons to refuse a contract.

The main issue, it seems, is that, up until now, there hasn’t been sufficient will to fight against a potential lawsuit if the center did refuse a contract.

Even without the statues and ordinances against blasphemy and vandalizing religious property, if the Dakhma wanted to pay $420 — that’s all the center is charging them to host the black mass — to lease the same venue next April to “celebrate” the 20th anniversary of Timothy McVeigh’s terrorist attack on OKC’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, it seems certain that the center would come up with new policies, ordinances and fees to provide it whatever grounds it thinks it would need to deny the venue and that it would willingly engage the city’s general counsel to fight any lawsuit that might arise on account of the denial.

The second thing we did in Cambridge was politely and respectfully keep the pressure on those who had decision-making ability to do the right thing. Harvard President Drew Faust had the ability to shut the event down herself, and we and many others continuously asked her to use the power of her office to do the right thing. Within a few days, 70,000 people had signed petitions calling on her to stop the black mass. Several notable individuals and organizations, Catholic and non-Catholic, wrote her private and public letters. It was obvious that Harvard’s reputation was taking a serious hit across the country and globe, and it showed no sign of abating. President Faust eventually condemned the Satanic mass, attended a Holy Hour of Eucharistic adoration and reparation with Catholic students and set in motion the chain of events that shut down the mock mass on campus.

In Oklahoma, there would be many people in positions of authority whom interested parties could contact to try to persuade them to use their offices to find the will and the means to shut down the black mass. Archbishop Paul Coakley has asked the people of his archdiocese to contact Mayor Mick Cornett (mayor@okc.gov) to express their concerns and register their complaints with charity. The 25 members of the Civic Center board of directors, the leaders of the Civic Center Foundation and the heads of the seven resident art companies that sponsor most of the events at the center could also be approached — their names and links are all available at OKCCivicCenter.com — because they would be particularly concerned that the reputation of the Civic Center that they have worked so hard to build up is being blackened because of its association with the black mass.

Likewise the OKC Chamber of Commerce, which helped to build the Civic Center in 1937, could be communicated with, because the general reputation of Oklahoma City, like Harvard’s was, is on the line. A petition urging the black mass to be canceled had accumulated more than 50,000 signatures as of Aug. 14 (www.tfpstudentaction.org), and every new signature is one more reason to shut down the Satanic public-relations stunt in a theater seating, at most, 88.

One leader who has spoken out is Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallon, who released a statement on Aug. 11 condemning the black mass as a “disgusting mockery of the Catholic faith” that should be “equally repellent to Catholics and non-Catholics alike” and saying that she will “pray” that the Satanists will “realize how hurtful their actions are and cancel the event.” Interested parties could still contact her to ask her to use her formidable political skills to buttress her words and her prayers to shut down the black mass in violation of the state’s blasphemy statute (405-521-2342).

There were three other things we employed in Cambridge.

We worked behind the scenes, on campus and off, with those with well-earned reputations for defusing conflict and for opposing bigotry in all forms. Their quiet interventions helped to convey something of the significance of the offense.

We isolated Satanic worship from claims of freedom of religion, freedom of speech or of cultural expression. Even those who materialistically disbelieve in all supernatural agencies are uncomfortable with others ritually worshipping evil. We challenged people to consider the content of what the Satanists were proposing to do, to realize it’s different in kind to genuine religious activity or controversial speech. Archbishop Coakley has reminded everyone that a Satanic mass is inviting “dark powers” into the community, exposing all who are involved to direct or indirect “spiritual danger.” Those who play with fire eventually get burnt, and communities are foolish to give arsonists a venue.

Finally, and most importantly, we prayed — and everyone else prayed with us. There was a standing-room only liturgy of adoration and reparation the night of the event. Parishes, monasteries and convents were scheduling the same, both before and during the event. There’s obviously no way to measure the direct impact of this prayer, but we’re convinced it made the decisive difference.

The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the neighboring Dioceses of Tulsa and Wichita have asked their clergy and faithful to make novenas of prayer and fasting, pray Rosaries, recite daily the Prayer to St. Michael and schedule and participate in Eucharistic Holy Hours and processions. These are efforts that all of us can and should join.

Father Landry is pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Fall River, Massachusetts,

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Comments

In a libertarian culture committed to free speech and freedom of religion, using secular arguments accessible to everyone is important.

Satanic Black Masses are not protected free speech or ‘another religion’ but is a form or hate speech against Catholics in a similar way to a ritual desecration of the holy objects of another religion eg the ritual desecration of a copy of the Quran even if it was the legal property of the destroyer.

Arguing the hate speech aspect of this in the public square is I think effective.

Posted by JD on Saturday, Sep 6, 2014 6:52 PM (EDT):

Is it possible that allowing the black mass to go forward, but shedding a bright light on what happens there, could provide a better long-term revulsion? Thus, destroying its allure (i.e., it is just another expression of religion, or protest, or assembly). It’s the old “let them hang themselves with their own rope” principle. Just thinking out loud.

This is a well-written article, Father Landry. The idea of a black mass to catholics is truly repugnant. However, unfortunately, so much of the world thinks in $ signs. So…here is some initial ground work to try to put pressure on the civic center. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to do the digging, but I can provide a lot of the info to get someone else started if they can piggy-back on this.

2) Corporate sponsorships are critical. Think of all of the corporate sponsorships that were pulled over the Clipper’s owners racist comments. This happened bc of the collective outroar. Let’s roar. Here are the corporate sponsors - I suggest reaching out to their media and IR contacts (always found on their websites) and informing them that they are banner-companies for an organization that is supporting something so vile. I’d also suggest posting about the black mass on each of these company’s facebook pages and that through their sponsorship, they are defacto supporting the black mass. No $17 billion market cap company (i.e. Chesapeake Energy) wants its name in the press for that reason. It’s amazing how quickly companies react to bad publicity.
Companies:
AT&T, Bank of Oklahoma, Chesapeake Energy, Corner Energy, Devon, MidFirst Bank, Opubco Communications Group, Love’s Country Store

Just my two cents - I hope it helps!

Posted by Bro.Abey George on Sunday, Aug 24, 2014 12:15 AM (EDT):

Sorry dear, there was a mistake in quoting the scripture. It was not Jeremiah it is Ezekiel. Those who pray for Gods people will be rewarded with sign of protection to go t Heaven.
I know it is the last time and satan will over power the world in due time. But till the last we have to fight. The recent persecutions against the Christians shows the satanic groups are very powerful. But it also has to happened according to Rev. 11: 15-19. But soon the wrath of God is to fall on the wicked people. I saw a dream of hurricane and hail storm with the war. Also I can feel, it is coming. So we all have to repent and pray for our ancestors who died and pray for the redemption of the souls who is having the mark on their forehead according to Ezekiel 9/4, Rev: 7/3. Please attend the Eucharistic Adoration quite often and pray for the persecuted Christians and fall of the satanic regime. God bless you all.

Posted by Bro.Abey George on Wednesday, Aug 20, 2014 11:40 PM (EDT):

I know it is the last time and satan will over power the world in due time. But till the last we have to fight. The recent persecutions against the Christians shows the satanic groups are very powerful. But it also has to happened according to Rev. 11: 15-19. But soon the wrath of God is to fall on the wicked people. I saw a dream of hurricane and hail storm with the war. Also I can feel, it is coming. So we all have to repent and pray for our ancestors who died and pray for the redemption of the souls who is having the mark on their forehead according to Jeremiah 9/4, Rev: 7/3. Please attend the Eucharistic Adoration quite often and pray for the persecuted Christians and fall of the satanic regime. God bless you all.

Posted by Mary@42 on Wednesday, Aug 20, 2014 2:46 AM (EDT):

@ Good Question “......If only bishops/priests were half as passionate about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, saving souls from hell, and leading the laity in the fight against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms we wouldn’t have satanic masses in public venues going virtually unchallenged….”

Let us all remember that when Our Lord was dying on the Cross of His Apostles had ran away…..only young John was there with His Mother and a few other devout Women…only Nocondemus and Joseph of Arimathea were on hand to help them bury Him. Never mind that the Bishops and Priests are not on the front-line fight for Jesus. We are enough; we who are responding to this Article. Let us go on our knees before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, receiving Him with reverence,meeting Him often in His Tribunal of Mercy, praying our daily Holy Rosary, and above all praying unceasingly the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy. We shall move Heaven to act decisively against this Evil.

Posted by Pam on Tuesday, Aug 19, 2014 7:18 PM (EDT):

Amen Julien and Mary!

Posted by Good Question on Tuesday, Aug 19, 2014 5:52 PM (EDT):

America, why, oh why did you discard God that you now see nothing evil in a despicable act which calls the evil powers of satan upon your Land?——
That’s a very, very good question. What has happened to our beloved country and our beloved Church? The government is openly rebelling against God in many ways and the Church’s response to this diabolic uprising is far too little, far too late. I and so many others have begged priests for perpetual Adoration or even just 1 hour per month, Benediction, the Rosary, prayer devotions, acts of reparation for sin and most priests refuse every time. The few parishes that do have the aforementioned, the priest, deacon, and most parishioner refuse to show up and participate leaving just one or two faithful to represent the entire community before God.

Father Landry, satanists bear witness boldly and publicly to the dark arts on behalf of the fallen angels. It’s really disheartening seeing catholic bishops/priests in the media passionately talking politics. If only bishops/priests were half as passionate about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, saving souls from hell, and leading the laity in the fight against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms we wouldn’t have satanic masses in public venues going virtually unchallenged.

P.S.
Something like this would have been completely unmanageable in pre-Vatican II/new mass America.

Posted by Mary@42 on Tuesday, Aug 19, 2014 5:08 AM (EDT):

America, America, what has happened to you and your Country?. We in Africa a long, long time ago admired your Motto “In God We Trust”. Why, oh why did you discard God that you now see nothing evil in a despicable act which calls the evil powers of satan upon your Land? How come the sense of good and evil has been obliterated from your hearts and minds??? And you call yourselves the Super Power whom the rest of the Word should emulate.

God have mercy on you all. Eternal Father, we offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole World. For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion have Mercy of on us and on the whole World. Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole World.

Posted by Julian Penrod on Tuesday, Aug 19, 2014 1:08 AM (EDT):

There is a point to keep in mind.
This is an act of aggressive vindictiveness. A display intended to convey to everyone that you hate someone. In that way, it can be considered incitement. An encouraging of others to give full vent to viciousness against God.
That distinguishes the “black mass”, that defines Satanism in this form. Namely, a wholesale repudiation of and hatred for God. But that is a serious point.
Because that brands such practices as illegitimate for being considered sincere, well meant philosophical systems.
Legitimate philosophical systems are replete with base believes and tenets and resulting conclusions. They may disagree with another system, they may disagree with every word in another system, they may even have been formulated to contradict another system, but they are all independent systems, built around a self sustaining collection of principles. They are not simply things intended to spit in the face of another system.
This planned display is an attack and that brands Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall as a complicit conspirator.
The same for atheism. Anyone who looks at the article, “Researchers study how humor matters in social movements”, on the PhysOrg website, will see, among other things, that the article is mislabeled. Primarily featured is the atheist movement and, frankly, from the description, indeed, even from the admitted nature, of their actions, humor has nothing to do with their machinations. Humor is, primarily, well meaning and friendly. Even if biting, sarcastic and acerbic, it is not foul mooded or wholly hate filled. On the other hand, what atheism unleashes against those who accept the presence of God is nothing short of unleavened viciousness. They co-opted the early symbol of the fish for the atheist movement, giving it feet and a smirk. They describe their actions openly as geared to “mock”, to “ridicule” those who accept the presence of God. They seek to “discomfort” those who accept the presence of God. They put out bumper stickers with a dinosaur eating the fish of early Christianity.
And all this in the matrix of atheism gratuitously, and deceitfully, depicting itself as “scientific” in the sense of being logical. Since when does mockery constitute a valid method of logical disproof? But, then, honor, even to their own fraudulently claimed ideal of “science”, cannot be accepted of liars who will insist as a “scientific” fact that God is not present, but, then, will refuse to prove it.

Posted by Pam on Monday, Aug 18, 2014 8:33 PM (EDT):

If Jesus can overthrow tables because merchants are making the temple a den of thieves, this Archbishop can do a lot more than ask for a letter drive. If we were to offer the Archbishop in the place of Christ, truly present in the Eucharist, I wonder if he would come up with a different plan? Come to think of it, why hasn’t the Archbishop made that offer himself? Now that would be truly Christlike.

Posted by Janet on Monday, Aug 18, 2014 6:24 PM (EDT):

Thank you for this article.I completely agree that all people of good will should see the error in allowing the desecration of religious items weather or not they ascribe to the underlying beliefs those items represent. Another important point is that the celebration of evil should be out of bounds even in a tolerant society. There is just so far we should bend over backwards to not say no to anybody. There is such s thing as wrong. When will mankind stand up and say so. What sort of weenies are we to look the other way while Satan dances in our public square?

Posted by Donald M. Connell on Monday, Aug 18, 2014 5:02 PM (EDT):

I did check out the website, and it appears that some twisted, sick, vile priests started to do these rituals so they turned away from Our Lord and went with a version of an Eastern/Hindu religion. They are selling tickets for a black mass; however these people are devil worshippers and is very perverse; while the church of satan worshippers don’t believe in anything supernatural (including having souls to sell or have them and wanting to go into an afterlife), only worship satan for what he symbolizes or represents-not obtaining favors, or abilities.
The idea of obtaining a consecrated host is a bit far fetched, because all you need to do is go to any Catholic stores (or a religious store that sells items to many faiths) and get the kind that a priest uses from the shelves, pays fir it then uses it. Unless there has been thefts in various Catholic churches around where the black mass is to be conducted, then let the matter be and beef up security or get a better lock on the tabernacle, and make sure the tabernacle cannot be stolen. Instead of a black mass, perhaps it would be better if they did a documentary so as to learn the origins and explain what is used , and the core beliefs ; as any of us would do if someone asks about the Catholic church, not ram it down their throats. Our Lord said to preach the Gospel, not to threaten or call their faiths perverted-hard to stomach maybe.
May Our Lord and Blessed Virgin Mary protect us from all manner of evil and grant the wisdom to see the truth and be a more understanding people.

Posted by Trish Crew on Monday, Aug 18, 2014 4:42 PM (EDT):

Reading the account of the desired desecration of Our Lord is indeed sickening. It seems our country is in an identity crisis when such anti-Christian activity is not only allowed by law, but is somehow hallowed by law. It is mind boggling that we are expected to be tolerant of these activities, not to protest loudly and take to the streets and disrupt because if we did such a thing we would be in the wrong, breaking a different law. How can it be that our country has become such a place? I’m sitting here not causing anyone any trouble, but the Jew in Germany in 1939 wasn’t causing anyone any trouble, either. But Christians and Christian belief are becoming demonized while demon worship and calling down blessings from the devil is sanctioned by law. It is crazy. If you say that out loud, like I say it to my husband, he says I am exaggerating and it is just my perception of things. That it is only a pendulum swing away from religion that will swing back again. But when good is called evil, like marriage between one man and one woman, and evil is called good, and words mean whatever I say they mean, how can anyone live sanely in a country like that? I worry about us. I really do. It wouldn’t take a lot for radical Islam to conquer a nation that is destroying itself from the inside out.

Posted by Mary on Monday, Aug 18, 2014 3:23 PM (EDT):

I signed the petition and passed it around, and I will pray for this evil to stop, if you haven’t signed please do so, here is the link:

I only claim to be a relatively intelligent and
educated citizen. In contrast,
I would love to hear someone that can claim some real legal competency
address how likely it is that the cited Oklahoma law would be
promptly overturned on appeal. My guess is that is exactly
what the city legal staff in OKC expect to happen if a lawsuit is filed.
There are groups like Freedom From Religion with the staying
power to support such a suit (the fact that some of their more groundless
suits such as the trade center cross failed shouldn’t encourage
us).

On a different subject: N.D. ; presumably you are talking about
God’s law when you say “accountable”, since it would
pass my understanding how the most straightforward
method of obtaining a consecrated host would be illegal in criminal
or civil law.

Posted by Jon on Monday, Aug 18, 2014 3:02 PM (EDT):

I don’t know if there’s a legal way to prevent this event from happening. But I’m assuming that the ‘blasphemy statute’ is a red herring. That’s got to be unconstitutional and therefore unenforceable. Likewise any laws forbidding insults of religions. The vandalism law seems a red herring, too, since they wouldn’t be using anyone else’s property.

Posted by N.D. on Monday, Aug 18, 2014 10:36 AM (EDT):

“Thou shalt not steal”, is binding on all men; the Consecrated Host must be returned intact, and those that enabled the theft held accountable.

Posted by N.D. on Monday, Aug 18, 2014 10:30 AM (EDT):

It is important to note that Harvard, as well as many other educational institutions, considers this to be “homosexual bigotry”:

One can be a bigot in regards to other people’s ideas or opinions, but one cannot be a bigot in regards to that which is true, for it can never be, in essence, intolerant or unfair, to choose truth, and not condone error.

Man, is not, in essence, an object of sexual desire/orientation; from The Beginning, we are, and have always been, in essence, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, called to live in Loving relationship, in communion with the ordered Communion of Perfect Love that Is The Blessed Trinity.

Posted by Jonathan Carroll on Monday, Aug 18, 2014 5:32 AM (EDT):

Is there any appetite yo go in physically and save the host?
[comment edited]

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